Tag Archives: naturalism

Workshop: Folk Psychology and Descriptive Psychology – in the Contexts of Historicism, Relativism and Naturalism

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A workshop on “Folk Psychology and Descriptive Psychology – in the Contexts of Historicism, Relativism and Naturalism” will take place at the University of Vienna April 26th through 28th. Full details below.

Folk Psychology and Descriptive Psychology – in the Contexts of Historicism, Relativism and Naturalism /Völkerpsychologie und beschreibende Psychologie – im Kontext von Historismus, Relativismus und Naturalismus.

Workshop / Tagung
Wednesday April 26 – Friday April 28, 2017

Vienna, University Campus, Alte Kapelle.

Organizers:
Christian Damböck, Uljana Feest, Martin Kusch, Hartwig Wiedebach

Hosts:
Institute Vienna Circle,
ERC project 339382 “The Emergence of Relativism”,
FWF project P27733 “Early Carnap in Context”
Faculty for Philosophy and Education, University of Vienna

Conference languages are English and German

Late 19th-century German language philosophy and humanities saw the emergence of two important (related) approaches: Folk Psychology (Völkerpsychologie) and Descriptive Psychology (beschreibende Psychologie). The main representatives of these currents were Chaim H. Steinthal and Wilhelm Dilthey, as well as many of their pupils and followers. One could mention here Hermann Cohen, Moritz Lazarus, Gustav Glogau, Georg Simmel, Wilhelm Wundt, Karl Mannheim, Paul Natorp, Rudolf Carnap, and Georg Spranger. Although Folk and Descriptive Psychology were highly influential for some time, they were quickly forgotten in the 20th century. Until recently, histories of psychology, sociology and philosophy have paid little attention to these developments. Indeed, even in key figures such as Steinthal, Dilthey, or Cohen, their involvement with Folk and Descriptive Psychology is often ignored. The aim of this workshop is to invite scholars working on the history of psychology, of sociology, of the humanities, and of philosophy to reconsider historiographical and philosophical aspects of this important current. Topics of the conference will be: (1) an exegesis of the key contributions of Steinthal and Dilthey; (2) historical analyses of positive receptions of Folk Psychology and Descriptive Psychology; (3) historical analyses of negative responses to Folk Psychology and Descriptive Psychology, e.g. in phenomenology, experimental psychology, and various currents of (Neo )Kantianism; (4) philosophical investigations of the current relevance of Folk and Descriptive Psychologies.

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New Issue: History of the Human Sciences

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The April 2013 issue of the journal History of the Human Sciences is now online. Included in these issue are seven all new articles on topics that include the history of psychiatric ideas about self-harm, madness and the brain, and early British and American sociology. Full titles, authors, and abstracts follow below.

“Religion, polygenism and the early science of human origins,” by Terence D. Keel. The abstract reads,

American polygenism was a provocative scientific movement whose controversial claim that humankind did not share a common ancestor caused a firestorm among naturalists and the lay public beginning in the 1830s. This article gives specific attention to the largely overlooked religious ideas marshaled by American polygenists in their effort to construct race as a unit of analysis. I focus specifically on the thought of the American polygenist and renowned surgeon Dr Josiah Clark Nott (1804–73) of Mobile, Alabama. Scholars have claimed that in his effort to establish a properly modern scientific view of race Nott was one of the first American naturalists to publicly denounce the notion of common human descent (monogenesis) as proclaimed in the Bible. I argue that despite his rejection of monogenesis, Nott’s racial theory remained squarely within the tradition of Christian ideas about the natural world. American polygenism provides an example of how scientific and religious ideas worked together in the minds of American antebellum thinkers in the development of novel theories about race and human origins.

“Badness, madness and the brain – the late 19th-century controversy on immoral persons and their malfunctioning brains,” by Felix Schirmann. The abstract reads, Continue reading New Issue: History of the Human Sciences →